Fall Festivities

If there is anything to say about New England, I have come to LOVE fall all over again!  Although I love the south and the nice warm weather, I didn't realize (or had forgotten) of the fun and distinct season changes that happen in other parts of the country.  Having lived in the west, on the West coast, in the south west, the south and now the north east - I definitely think the north east wins the prize of "Best Fall!" 

We'll start out with apple picking.  A couple in our ward was kind enough to let us come over one Monday night for Family night and to pick apples.  The girls had a blast!

Sister Davis then came to my house, let me borrow all of her supplies and taught me how to make applesauce.  I know what I want for Christmas!  I loved it and it tastes SO MUCH BETTER!

Work those apples Aimee!

We made 22 quarts of applesauce in just a few hours.  It was so much fun.  The next day, Ali's class had a field trip to go pick apples. 

 Adalyn and Caleb and I all enjoyed the field trip too!

 Adalyn was so desperate to get on the school bus.  She wants to be like the older girls and go to school.  I told her she could go have a seat on the first step and you think I would have just told her she was going to Disneyland.  She was SO excited!

There were so many apples on the ground - in perfect condition.  At 50 cents per pound, I could help but get more apples to make more applesauce.  Why not?  I still had the tools to make it.  So - 22lbs later, I was back in the kitchen - this time, making applesauce on my own!

 Wash, quarter, cook....repeat.  I added cinnamon sticks to the pots for aromatics.  YUM!

 These apples made PINK applesauce and it is so yummy!  The girls loved that it was pink.  I made 12 pints, and 4 more quarts.  :)

That weekend, we took a ride up out of town.  Any road you take out of Keene has a river running by it and beautiful hills and trees.  They are especially beautiful during September and October.

Attempt at a family picture. 

I love the reflections in the lake!  So beautiful.  Imagine this image, 10 times more brilliant!

Ali and I went on a visit up north and found ourselves at Dartmouth College.  So, I snapped a picture from the car at a red light.  Harvard is on the way to the Boston Temple, I would love to stop there and walk around their campus one day!  I would love to walk around Dartmouth too!

With all the fresh apples, I attempted to make apple cider donuts.  The dough was delicious and smelled wonderful - but - once fried, it didn't taste that good.  I don't think I had rolled the dough out thin enough.  I'm tempted to try again, but it was a lot of work. 

We ended up making mostly donut holes. 

Finally the Keene Pumpkin Festival.  It you google and read about Keene, you're bound to learn about the pumpkin festival.  Each year it gets bigger and bigger, and this year it was the goal to get the world record back.  World Record?  What's that.  How many pumpkins have you seen carved and lit at the same time?  We didn't hang around to see them lit, but we saw over 30,000 pumpkins.  I am sure the official number is out there somewhere - but we made the world record again, for the 9th time!

 Each of the schools held a pumpkin carving night.  The girls were very excited to be involved.  I had them each draw their faces that they wanted me to carve.  Pay attention, because our goal was to find them among the 30,500 some odd pumpkins.

 We carved their names on the back of the pumpkin as well.

 Guess who got to finally ride a school bus?  Because our town is a small one of about 25,000 people, the advised us to take the free shuttle to downtown.  Fortunately there was a stop semi-near our house - so we walked on over and rode the bus into town.  Adalyn thought it was bumpy and scary on the ride down - b ut then she got to sit by herself on the ride home and LOVED it!

 Here is the main grand stand in central square. 

 We saw a cute pumpkin snowman that I didn't get a picture of.  We took a few other fun pictures - you name it, and it was most likely carved in a pumpkin.  I liked the stitching on this one.

 The teeth were cool, and the "red hat" society. 

 Do you remember Ali's drawing?  There's her cute little pumpkin face to the right of her head. 

 Then we found Andie's!  YEAH!

 They had all sorts of street performances, musical groups, dancers, story book plays, etc.  We stopped and listened to this a'capella group from University of New Hampshire.

 Adalyn had to have a picture by the princess pumpkins. 

 This one was huge and way cool.  Never thought of peeling a pumpkin and carving it like this.

 This guy was probably 6'8" - at least.  And, he was wearing a cool carved pumpkin on his head, and wrists and feet. 

We had a great time at the pumpkin festival.  There were lots of booths around, with all sorts of food to buy.  HGTV was also there, giving away free stuff and candy bags to the kids.  It was fun.  They did an episode of pumpkin wars with the property brothers last year, where Keene won.  If you watched that - then you've seen our little community.  I am sure you can still find it and watch it.  Maybe someday I will.

We sure have been enjoying the fall weather and fun.  It's moving into the high 40's and sometimes low 50's now during the day and we are very cold.  That was our winter in Georgia.  We can't wait to experience the mid-January where it is -10 for a week and gets dark by 4:30pm (NOT!)  Hope you enjoyed all the pictures...I count this as our family journal/scrapbook.  Great way to record memories.  Enjoy the rest of October!  Halloween is just around the corner!